Perceived reachability as a function of body effectiveness by young African infants
MENA Dubai 2003 Abstract
Author Debo Akande
Copy Following Rochet, Goubet and Senders (1999), two experiments compared 8-month-old infants as they reach for an object. All the subjects were proficient reachers but with different levels of sitting ability. The object was presented at various distances, within and beyond reach of the subject. In the first experiment, the scaling of perceived reachability in infants with different postural abilities (i.e. non-sitter, near-sitter, and sitter infants) was explored. The second experiment examined the role of proprioception in the scaling of perceived reachability by non-sitter and sitter infants. Taken together, results concur with the previous findings of Rochet and associates which indicate that perceived reachability is calibrated in relation to the degree of postural control achieved by the infant. This is because the infants showed both a sense of their own situation in the environment and a sense of their own body affectivities vis a vis reaching or not reaching for a distal object. This is further given cultural interpretations.